We are going to take some of the negatives attributes and bad habits that we went over last week and point you in a more positive and disciplined mindset to help you become more profitable and close more deals.

Let’s get stared with last week’s list and the I’ll add to it with the last items probably being one of the most important as to the real reasons people buy from you.

1st Is Presentation

How do you present yourself and your company. As you pull up to the home did you arrive in a newer vehicle or a junker? Were you dressed as a business person or did you appear as you had just spent 12 hours working in the sun?

First of all there is nothing wrong with having an old vehicle or working 12 hours a day.

It’s all about presenting yourself as a professional business owner. If you come prepared as a professional you act as a professional and you will close more sales because of that. Remember, there are companies out there who are trying to get your money away from that potential customer.

2nd The Proposal

In order to compete in the market place, we’ve already established that the more professional you are the higher the chances are that you are going to do business with that potential customer. So let’s talk about the proposal. Is it scribbled on a pieces of paper or is it detailed? Do you take pictures and include them in the proposal, or may be before and after of other jobs? How about proof of insurance or a license if you are required to have one. Any guarantees you might have. And be sure to use testimonials, those testimonials are your sales people.

Does you proposal set you above the crowd that is competing for their money?

3rd Communications After The Initial Proposal

If they didn’t say yes right then do you have a follow up system in place (check out SendJim) or do you just hope they will call you back? It’s really all about relationship building.

It amazes me how many times I’ve heard from a customer on how some contractor came out to give a proposal, took time to talk with them, took measurements and tells them he will get back with them to give them a proposal and never does That one leaves me baffled! Did you know if you can leave them with a proposal right then, it will exponentially increase your chances of getting that customer’s money With all the different software available today, you can go over the proposal with the customer and email it to them right then.

This is one of the main reasons why people will buy from you. Your ability to keep in constant communication with them. This one simple strategy creates raving fans.

4th Listening To What Your Customer Wants

As sales people we have a tendency to see a need and try to fulfill the need. That’s not our job, our job is to listen to the potential customer and give them what they want. Think of it this way, you go into a pizza restaurant and you order a pepperoni pizza from the waitress, she looks at you and with a serious face says, you know a nice fresh salad would be a lot healthier. You know you probably need to eat healthy, but you want a pepperoni pizza. How many times are you going to go back to that restaurant if they are going to try to talk you out of what you want?

Here is my philosophy, give them what they want first, then help them realize what they might need and sell that to them after you have established a relationship.

5th Showing Up On Time

If we are talking about professionalism being reasons people buy from you, lets link that to time.

Here is what I mean. If you are going to make an appointment to go do an estimate, make sure you show up early. If you are going to be more than 5 minutes late, give them a call let them know just in case they had scheduled you into a tight schedule like you scheduled them in to a jam packed day. Give them the opportunity to reschedule you instead of them getting upset that you have wasted their time and you starting off on the wrong foot.

Right now you’re thinking, as contractors we’re running all over the place trying to acquire new business to keep the beast fed and growing so I can’t believe 5 minutes is going to make that much difference. They just don’t understand what I have to do each day.

I really hate to burst your bubble but that person you’re going to see does not care about you. They only care about themselves.

You’re thinking, what’s 5 minutes? In its simplest form, its time and time can never be replaced. Also, in your potential customer’s mind, you are setting a precedence of being late. This is also translating into the fact that prospect is thinking that you are is not in control of your business or yourself, that you are not truthful on what time you were going to be at his home or business, so what else will you not be truthful on? This is how your potential customer thinks.

6th Appearing Needy

Last week I talked about the contractor who appears needy. They appear to try to sell you at any cost, even their own profit.

That means you need to work on the stuff that goes on in your head. You need to be confident in who you are and confident in your products and services. If you are always worried about your competition, they have already beat you because you are obsessed with beating them instead of growing your own business.

It’s time for you to change the game. Make it so that your completion worries about you and it’s not about price. In these last 2 weeks I have gone over why people don’t buy from you and why they do buy from you and the only thing I never mentioned was price, the purchase price in the equation is the end result of them agreeing to do business with you.

7th Price Is A Non-Factor

There are only 2 times price becomes a factor in your sales system from a negative position. 1. is when you make it a factor and 2. when you are dealing with a price shopper. The only thing you can change in this process is you.

Remember that you are in the real business of selling yourself, the potential customer has called you because they want to purchase. In fact they are already ready to buy.

So you’re not selling your service or your product. All you have to do is sell yourself.

That’s where you need to be confident in yourself. Own who you are and become confident in your pricing because you are selling yourself. That’s the key… you’re not selling a product or service at this point, because they’ve already decided when they called you that they are prepared to buy.

They have called you to interview you to see if they like you and whether they want to do business with you. That’s why one of the main things you have to do is sell yourself and be confident in who you are.

8th The Know, Like and Trust

The second probably most important thing of all the things that we talked about this week is that, in order for the customer to make a decision to buy, they have to get to know you, to like you and to trust you.

This is probably the most important thing, the real reason people buy.

They say that people do business with you because they know you, like you and trust you. And the key to making that all happen from a non-referral is to figure out a way to create instant report. Instant report will get them to know you, like you and trust you. There are a lot of great books on how to do that or you can stumble on creating that system for your sales process yourself.

I know with mine, if I can keep them engaged for 30 to 45 minutes and I can get them to laugh I know I‘ve got the sale.

Wrapup

These are things that have worked well for me and that I know they work well for other people because I certainly didn’t come up with the stuff on my own. I’ve copied from other people so I hope that this will get you a little more engaged in your business.

Thinking like a customer may help you think clearly about how to create systems so that people will buy from you more. Do it so that you can close more sales, become better at what you do and be the top dog in the marketplace for other people to compete against. Set the bar high!

These are just some of the big ones..the REAL reasons people buy from you.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this week are the ones who make this program available to you:

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Looking for a great way to interact with your customers? I would recommend SendJim.com!

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